Salazar in a press conference outside the historic Miner Teacher’s College (formerly Miner Normal School), now home to the Howard University School of Education, noted that these funds were made available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA),

“This investment continues a long and important partnership between the Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the Department of the Interior,” Salazar said. “As result of the 1980 White House Initiative [on HBCUs], the Department of Interior Historic Preservation Initiative was formed. It identifies and restores the most historically significant and threatened structures on HBCU campuses. Since then, the Initiative has helped HBCUs save structures that likely would have been lost without immediate rehabilitation.”

President Sidney A. Ribeau thanked Secretary Salazar and the Obama administration for their commitment to restoring national treasures across these historic campuses.

“I say thanks on behalf of Howard and the 19 other HBCUs,” Ribeau said. “Your investment in HBCUs is more than an investment in buildings; it is an investment in our history, our academic mission, our traditions, and it is the investment in the building of a new and different America.”

Education Dean Leslie Fenwick, Ph.D., as well as faculty and students, took the secretary on a tour of the Miner Building. The 1913 neo-colonial architecture will undergo infrastructural renovation to its windows and roof with the $800,000 made possible by the HBCU Economic Recovery Grant. To date, the University has invested $1.5 million in renovations to the first floor. It houses 80 percent of the classes in the Howard University School of Education.

Kim Lambert, president of the Department of Interior chapter of Blacks in Government, attended today’s event and lauded the allocation of federal stimulus money to preserve historic buildings at Black colleges.

The following 21 projects were selected from more than 107 applications submitted in June.